First, Unity - Next, Action

September 28, 1992|By Indigo

A meeting held last week in Orlando City Hall took an important step toward ensuring harmonious race relations in Orlando.

Organized by a mostly black grass-roots organization known as Unity for Justice, the purpose was to meet with local government officials and business leaders to define a host of problems that are the source of deep frustrations in black neighborhoods. Such frustration can hurt the health and image of this entire community.

Those problems include high unemployment, poor-paying jobs, high expulsion rates in schools, lack of access to capital for starting business and lack of availability of decent affordable housing. No, those aren't new problems, but they still need constant attention.

The challenge is this: Where to go from here? Business and government leaders at the meeting vowed to work with the Unity group. That's a start. But it would be a shame if six months from now there is nothing more to show but more meetings and studies.

It is important for everyone involved in this effort to set some reasonable, but tangible, short-term goals. Without real evidence of progress, the frustration is bound to grow.